Understanding the Overseer: Using Archaeology to Examine Status and Identity at James Madison's Montpelier

FAIN: RZ-266251-19

Montpelier Foundation (Orange, VA 22960-0551)
Terry P. Brock (Project Director: December 2018 to June 2022)
Matthew B. Reeves (Project Director: June 2022 to present)
Mary Furlong Minkoff (Co Project Director: February 2019 to present)
Matthew B. Reeves (Co Project Director: April 2019 to June 2022)
Terry P. Brock (Co Project Director: June 2022 to present)

Field research on the overseer’s house at James Madison’s Montpelier leading to public programs and publications on the social, economic, and racial complexity of 19th-century plantations in the United States. (36 months)

This study will adopt the space/place model to examine the overseer at James Madison’s Montpelier, an early 19th century plantation in the Virginia Piedmont. It will examine the relationship of the overseer to the plantation elite and the enslaved community through an in depth study of the overseer’s space on the landscape, and how they defined that space through household activities. We will examine the space the overseer occupied on the landscape through a spatial analysis of the farm complex in which the overseer’s house was situated, and excavations of the overseer’s home and its surrounding yard space. Archaeologists will examine how the plantation owner situated the overseer in relationship to the rest of the community through building architecture and the spatial proxemics of the overseer's house. Then we will examine how the overseer and his household responded to this position through the organization of his household activities and consumer choices.

Associated Products

Home Farm Project Page (Web Resource)
Title: Home Farm Project Page
Author: Terry P Brock
Abstract: This project page was designed to provide the public with a tool for exploring the archaeological survey at the Home Farm at Montpelier. Specifically, the page is divided into three sections: First, a page devoted to understanding the project goals, research questions, study area, and staff. Second, a page devoted to sharing live dashboards of the survey and excavation data as it is being collected in the field. Third, a page of StoryMaps and blog posts devoted to interpreting the archaeological data and answering the research questions.
Year: 2021
Primary URL: https://experience.arcgis.com/experience/8ac6a04bc3e54cf78146eafbd4b3f8b9/page/page_15/?data_id=dataSource_14-HomeFarm_Units_ExpBuilderViewLayer_6061%3A54580&views=view_67

Lunch and Learn: investigating the Overseer's House Site at James Madison's Montpelier (Public Lecture or Presentation)
Title: Lunch and Learn: investigating the Overseer's House Site at James Madison's Montpelier
Abstract: This presentation was given over Zoom at the Montpelier Archaeology Department's monthly Lunch and LEARN lecture series. The presentation reviewed the excavations at the overseer site, discussing the different survey methods used, as well as the features identified in the Phase II excavations.
Author: Terry P Brock
Author: Christopher J Pasch
Date: 05/28/2021
Location: Online
Primary URL: http://https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=huQmfHUnt8Y&feature=emb_title
Primary URL Description: This is the URL for the YouTube video recording.
Secondary URL: http://https://digitaldoorway.montpelier.org/project/archaeology-lunch-and-learn/
Secondary URL Description: This is the URL for all of the Lunch and LEARN Programs.

Investigating the Overseer’s House Site at James Madison’s Montpelier: An Overview and Summary of the Initial Findings (MAAC 2022) (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: Investigating the Overseer’s House Site at James Madison’s Montpelier: An Overview and Summary of the Initial Findings (MAAC 2022)
Author: Christopher Pasch
Author: Matthew Reeves
Author: Mary Furlong-Minkoff
Author: Terry P Brock
Author: Taylor Brown
Author: Hannah James
Abstract: This paper was presented at the 2022 Mid Atlantic Archaeology Conference. In 2019, the Montpelier Archaeology Department began excavations at the Overseer’s House. The site is located just a short walk from the Montpelier Visitor Center, next to Mount Pleasant, the original Montpelier homestead, and near the Madison family cemetery. The study is part of a larger effort to understand the main agricultural complex at Montpelier, called the Home Farm, which encapsulates a 70 acre area made up of the overseer’s house, a row of domestic quarters for people enslaved by the Madisons, a tobacco and wheat barn, and industrial sites such as a blacksmith shop.
Date: 04/01/2022
Primary URL: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1JdnYfz5AVJg1Mhrt5WMmFg4tktjzgUna?usp=sharing
Primary URL Description: MAAC 2022 Papers (Home Farm Phase II)

2021 Montpelier Archaeology Field School (Course or Curricular Material)
Title: 2021 Montpelier Archaeology Field School
Author: Terry P. Brock
Abstract: This online course component was developed for the 2021 Montpelier Archaeology Field School, and was used to provide a week of distanced, online instruction for field school students before they arrived at the property for excavation.
Year: 2021
Primary URL: https://courses.montpelier.org/courses/archaeology-field-school/
Primary URL Description: The URL goes to the Montpelier Courses webpage, specifically to the page where the online course for this field school is located. Unfortunately, the page course itself is restricted to enrolled students.
Secondary URL: http://https://courses.montpelier.org
Secondary URL Description: This is the Online Courses page for all of Montpelier's online courses.
Audience: Undergraduate

Session Title: Uncovering the Montpelier Plantation at the Middle Atlantic Archaeology Conference 2022 (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: Session Title: Uncovering the Montpelier Plantation at the Middle Atlantic Archaeology Conference 2022
Author: Rebecca Davis “Finding Place in Open Spaces: A Review of the Phase I Survey of Montpelier’s Home Far
Author: Lizzie Prow “A Blacksmith and Farrier Shop: It’s obscured positioning in the landscape of the Home F
Author: Nathaniel Glasgow “Intersections of Roads and Lifeways at the Lower Blacksmith Site”
Author: Jennifer McGee “Forging Ahead: Excavations of the Upper Blacksmith Site at James Madison’s Montpelie
Author: Emily Ingram “Excavation and Analysis of the Burn Site: What is it?”
Author: Chris Pasch, Mary Furlong Minkoff, Mathew Reeves, Katie Crawford-Lackey “Entangled Memories: A Lands
Abstract: The papers in this session explore how archaeology is uncovering the hidden components of the plantation landscape of James Madison’s Montpelier. By turning our attention from the main house to the enslaved quarters, work buildings, roads, fields, and spaces of the plantation, a new understanding of what the landscape looked like and how it was used and navigated by members of the enslaved community can be uncovered. Papers in this session will place the latest discoveries from Phase I and II excavations into the broader understanding of the plantation landscape, how it is remembered, and interpreted.
Date: 03/25/22
Primary URL: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1-os2K73NX0GMWVR1HytdpAgsKeOZNh9E?usp=sharing
Primary URL Description: MAAC 2022 Papers and Presentations

Home Farm Tour - end of the 2021 Season (Public Lecture or Presentation)
Title: Home Farm Tour - end of the 2021 Season
Abstract: The Archaeology Department provides a tour of the Home Farm, stopping at all of the sites identified and surveyed during the 2021 field season.
Author: Matthew Reeves
Author: Mary Furlong-Minkoff
Author: Chris Pasch
Author: Ryan Jones
Date: 12/22/2022
Location: James Madison’s Montpelier
Primary URL: https://youtu.be/4vfjt-WOpyQ
Primary URL Description: Home Farm Tour 2021

Friday Livestreams from the Home Farm on Instagram (Public Lecture or Presentation)
Title: Friday Livestreams from the Home Farm on Instagram
Abstract: Throughout the 2021-2022 Field Seasons, we provided livestreamed updates and short tours of various archaeological sites within the Home Farm on Instagram. There were a total of 12 livestreams which can all be found at https://www.instagram.com/montpelier_arch/channel/?hl=en .
Author: Chris Pasch
Author: Terry Brock
Date: 01/01/2022
Location: James Madison's Montpelier
Primary URL: https://www.instagram.com/tv/CbQMdHgAA6y/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet
Primary URL Description: Example of Home Farm Survey Livestream_March 2022

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